Will Groupon Boot Founder And CEO Andrew Mason?
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Nov 29, 2012 9:40PM
Groupon CEO Andrew Mason may be pushed out from the company he founded, sources say, and Mason says the board is just doing its job. All Things D reported Tuesday that Mason could be on the outs, and another source told Business Insider Tuesday it was rumored Mason "is on a short leash" and has until the end of the first quarter of 2013 to fix Groupon's problems.
“The question is not whether Andrew is a good guy, but whether Groupon needs an Eric Schmidt,” said one person close to the situation, referring to the former Google CEO who was brought in to work closely with the company’s two founders. “And there’s been a lot more pressure now on the board to consider this seriously.”
In an interview at Business Insider's IGNITION conference on Wednesday, Mason discussed the issues facing Groupon and said he'd fire himself if he thought he weren't the right guy for the job.
"Here's a news flash: Our stock is down about 80 percent since we IPO-ed a year ago," said Mason. "It would be weird if the board wasn't discussing whether I'm the right guy to do the job. It's actually their chief responsibility to ask that question, as they have asked that question in the past."